Mother's Day 2026

 

John 14:15-21

Easter 6 / Year A

We here this morning share at least one thing in common… we all have or had a mother.  Perhaps just a few of us lost our mother when we were young and with a rare exception each of our mothers did a pretty good job of nurturing us to adulthood (and beyond).  Ann Jarvis certainly did.  She gave birth to eleven children, but only four survived into adulthood.  Being a woman of deep faith, Ann drew on her profound loss to fuel an incredible life of public service in mid-19^th century West Virginia.  She took care of sick neighbors, labored to improve sanitary conditions in her area, provided aid and comfort to the soldiers of both the North and the South, and after the war worked to heal her fractured community.

Immediately after her mother’s death in May of 1905, her daughter Anna began work to fulfill one of her mother’s lifelong dreams: setting aside one day of rest every year for those who bear the duties of motherhood.  Three years later, on the second Sunday in May 1908, her church – Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, WV – celebrated the very first Mother’s Day.  Unsatisfied with merely a local observance, Anna began a letter writing campaign so extensive and successful just three years later Mother’s Day was celebrated in every state of the Union and on four different continents.  It was an idea and movement so popular that in 1914, just six years after the initial church service, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother’s Day to be a national holiday.

Since then, as we say now, it has gone Viral.  Today is the busiest day of the year for florists and restaurants and marks the highest annual number of   phone calls made and greeting cards sent.  And typically, after Christmas and Easter, it is the most attended service of the church year.

And speaking of church services, even I, at a tender, young age, could sense our preacher’s angst on this day.  Because my childhood church did not adhere to the lectionary cycle, there always seemed to be added pressure on him to deliver the goods around national days of celebration; none more so than Mother’s Day.   

His is a fate I do not have to share since we are a lectionary-based church and assigned readings often do not lend themselves to mothering.  This year, however, the Gospel of John pairs well with the moment at hand.  Consider what Jesus says and hear them as words, not just from him to his followers, but also from your mother to you:

·    “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” – not as in “Do what your mother says, or else!”, but rather as in “Mother knows best.”  If you want to live a good life, follow your mother’s advice because she knows what is best for you and will never lead you astray.  Likewise, Jesus’ commands are not arbitrary tests of obedience.  They are lanterns in the darkness and guideposts pointing the way for us to experience life in in all its fulness. 

·     “You are in me and I am in you.”  I don’t know if it is accurate to say your mother knows you better than anyone else, but certainly your mother knows you in ways no one else can.  And only you know how much of your mother you carry within, even years after she is gone.  The mother/child bond is an intimate, intertwining relationship of unparalleled depth and importance.  It is similar to how we experience Christ in our lives; a mystical connection of knowing and being known.  Both relationships help us to form the maps we use to chart our course through life.

·    “I will not leave you orphaned.”  Did you know within moments after being born a baby responds to its mother’s voice?  Or when a mother holds her baby to her chest, the child hears the mother’s heartbeat, recognizes it from the womb, and is soothed by it?  Or that a mother’s hug releases hormones in her child which promote feelings of safety and comfort?  Or the love and affection a child receives from its mother early in life leads to better cognitive and emotional development throughout life?  These physical responses of our mother form an unbreakable spiritual bond not unlike what Jesus promises to his followers.  After he is gone, he tells them, he will send his Spirit to abide in them forever.  He promises not to abandon them or leave them alone.  Long after our mother is no longer a daily presence in our lives and certainly long after she is gone, her love and her wisdom and her example remains with us and in us as a spiritual reality.

I am so glad Vestry members Dan, Bob, Grier, and TD are hosting this year’s Mother’s Day Brunch and I am especially looking forward to seeing all the pictures you have shared of your mother.  I suspect they will be sacramental – outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible grace.  And it will not surprise me at all if this becomes an annual Mother’s Day tradition here at St. Paul’s.

I have never been sure if this day is to be called Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day.  It can be argued either way, I suppose, but perhaps Anna Jarvis should have the final say-so (after all, she started all of this).  Anna said this is to be Mother’s Day because it is meant to honor and recognize your particular mother, not Mothers’ Day as a focus on all mothers.  Her distinction, I think, is especially helpful because while not all women have given birth, we all, as I said, have or had a mother.  This morning we pause to honor and give thanks to the one who loved us so deeply she shared with us her “commandments”, who remains in us, and whose witness and presence returns to us over and over again.